The Breathing Space meditation is a quick way of encouraging children (or adults) to step out of auto-pilot, whereby they become aware of the thoughts and emotions that are currently driving their mood and behaviour, before harnessing the power of their attention via breath and body. It’s a super effective way of practising self-awareness and self-management, the key components of emotional intelligence and mental health. It can be used with individual children at home or with full classes in school. It’s useful whether practised every morning, as a means of resetting attitudes after break/lunch/transition or as a tool to use in the moment, when students moods/attitudes are perhaps slipping. The wording of this meditation works best I think for KS2 - KS3 though I think it’s worth trying with KS1 KS4 or adults (works a treat for me!) I’ve attached a link to the YouTube clip and the audio file, as well as the slides that I use alongside this meditation, which encourage follow-up discussion so that children are expanding their emotional vocabulary also. If you enjoy this, check out my lockdown #mindful100 project on here YouTube. Jo Steer is a former Primary/Secondary teacher, trained in Mindfulness, YogaKidz, CBT essentials & Forest School practice. She is a TES Wellbeing Columnist & works in schools delivering bespoke wellbeing workshops and upgraded PSHE. See www.skillswithfrills.com to learn more!

2+ hours of teaching content for PSHE with a focus on student wellbeing and mental health upon returning to school in 2020. Developed by a children’s PSHE/mindfulness teacher, resources and techniques are tried and tested, making for a calming start back after a difficult year. This would make for a fantastic welcome back PSHE morning, setting a precedent for the kind of emotional intelligence and regulation that you hope to foster within the classroom. The topics and activities are key to any kind of recovery curriculum you’re hoping to put in place. The Session runs as follows: We tune into the present moment through a Breathing Space mindfulness meditation. Digging deeper, we consider the feelings/emotions that we have experienced recently and today, trying out Dr. Dan Siegel’s ‘name it to tame it’ method. We consider the ups and downs of happiness overall and specifically in 2020, completing our own happiness chart. Working in groups, we brainstorm strategies to boost our moods. In pairs, we take part in a cutting and sticking task based on the circle of control and deciding what we can and cannot control right now. We try an individual and team Gratitude Bomb, with a focus on 2020. Finally, we reflect on our learning/mindset. Activities are designed so that staff can pick up and use, with guidance provided to support delivery in the notes section of the powerpoint. Resources for various activities are also provided. These activities are well-suited to KS2 or KS3, with extension tasks throughout and tips as to how to use with younger children. Jo Steer is a former Primary/Secondary teacher, trained in Mindfulness, YogaKidz, CBT essentials & Forest School practice. She is a TES Wellbeing Columnist & works in schools delivering bespoke wellbeing workshops and upgraded PSHE. See www.skillswithfrills.com to learn more!

7-8 hours of teaching content for PSHE with a focus on student wellbeing and mental health. Students follow through each lesson, completing a range of speaking/listening/written activities, using an accompanying booklet. This can either be taught as a unit of work at KS2 or KS3, but equally it makes for a fantastic wellbeing day. This would be an excellent back to school day, sure to boost relationships and emotional intelligence from the get-go. Throughout these sessions, students are trained in the WARRIOR code as follows: Lesson 1 - What does it mean to be a warrior? Discussions link to mental health, strength, courage, resilience & what it means to be warrior. Lesson 2 - Work (Growth Mindset & basic neuroscience) Lesson 3 - Appreciate (Gratitude practice) Lesson 4 - Risk-hunting (Fight, Flight, Freeze & confidence-building techniques) Lesson 5 - Resilience (including the Iceberg Illusion) Lesson 6 - Investment in Kindness Lesson 7 - Observe (B.E.S.T Mindfulness - Breath, Emotions, Senses, Thoughts) Lesson 8 - Responsibility (Rights & Responibilities) Lesson 9 - Creative activities to consolidate Lessons are differentiated via questions and extention tasks wherever possible and are all easily adaptable. Lessons are designed in a way that staff can pick up and use and there are worksheets/students booklet provided wherever needed. Extra guidance is given in the notes section of the powerpoint to support effective delivery. Lessons are planned with the latest PSHE Association and DfE guidance for PSHE in mind. Jo Steer is a former Primary/Secondary teacher, trained in Mindfulness, YogaKidz, CBT essentials & Forest School practice. She is a TES Wellbeing Columnist & works in schools delivering bespoke wellbeing workshops and upgraded PSHE. See www.skillswithfrills.com to learn more!

This is a lesson that I created for all year 7 teachers upon our first meeting with students - it’s a great project to try out with KS2 or KS3 pupils. It will help you to really see who they are, how they think, what their team skills and confidence are like, across different subjects. In a nutshell: there’s a mix of speaking and listening tasks, amidst the introduction of P.M.I (plus, minus and interesting.) At the beginning of the lesson, we model a task, via the example: ‘what if money grew up on trees?’ - Pupils have to really consider the realistic positive, negative and interesting outcomes. This isn’t so much about getting the ‘right’ answers (though one laptop or ipad per group will certainly help with research), but more about engaging students in thought-provoking, curiosity-based discussion. The P.M.I topics here bring up some really interesting ideas and debate, whilst students develop their teamwork, research and presentation skills too. Included here is: ppt. slides for the full lesson, slides to hand out to groups (different scenarios for each group), a blank P.M.I grid to support note-taking and group research/ideas, an assessment grid to judge presentations and a full walkthrough of the lesson.

This is a fantastic lesson that I’ve used many times as part of a skill-based curriculum. The topic here is ‘Time’ and this lesson takes students on a journey through time and space, through the ‘Cosmic Calendar’. This topic and the clips included are super engaging and thought-provoking. I’ve had some brilliant lessons following this structure (including tricky classes!) The lesson begins with a clip and brief discussion, relating to how we (the average person) spends our time - e.g. 1 of every 5 minutes on social media. Eeeeek! Students are then given questions for the quiz ahead and have a few moments to look at this as a team - the idea is that they work together to note down and recall specific pieces of information… but I don’t tell them this! We then watch a clip - link included - of Neil DeGrasse Tyson presenting ‘The Cosmic Calendar’ as students jot down notes. Following this, there’s the quiz which they answer in teams. We then peer assess answers, before uncovering how the winning teams managed to remember the info (this is where we discuss team strategies!) After a little discussion - lots of opportunities for SMSC - we have an independent sketching plenary which allows students to demonstrate understanding of this complex concept at its base level. I’ve taught this lesson as a single hour with year 7 students, but I’ve also extended it as a teamwork project in two or three lessons, with students presenting their own alternative version of the Cosmic Calendar. It’s easy to differentiate as low down as year 5 students and as high as year 11, with only a few tweaks! Whether your goal is to learn about Science, Time and Space; to build up note-taking skills in Literacy; or to work on teamwork/retention skills, this lesson is an engaging way of doing them all.

Here are 10 different teamwork-based scenarios which pupils (preferably in teams) can discuss, before teamwork gets underway. Each group is given a specific problem and has to discuss together how they would resolve the situation and encourage the team to work together. They then feedback and we discuss as a class. If I have time and students are keen to add some drama, I’ll ask them to act our their scenario and resolution as a role play. As a teacher of life-skills, I saw teamwork as a discreet skill-based subject, as well as linking this in throughout other subject areas. These scenarios are based on the situations that just seemed to happen again and again. I find it extremely useful to use something like this BEFORE teamwork begins - things seem to run a lot more smoothly afterwards. Inevitably, you may still have some problems within groups, but you can refer back to these scenarios and how the class chose to solve problems. I’ve also thrown in a ‘Top Ten Teamwork Tips’ sheet, which students can use alongside this activity and keep in sight to support any partner/group based task. For strategic advice, ideas, lesson plans related to Inclusive Teamwork - ideas that fit nicely with this discussion-based task, go to https://skillswithfrills.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Published-Optimus-magazine-pull-out-Inclusive-Teamwork.pdf for my 4-page pullout in Optimus Educations’ ‘Special Children’ magazine.

These slow writing prompt cards provide your KS2/KS3 writers with an opportunity to be independent, whilst also using a scaffolded approach. Children can shuffle and select from the 16 cards before including this in their writing, leading to a much more structured piece of work. Examples are included with each card to support understanding. I’ve used these cards with a range of different topics and I’ve had a lot of success with this approach, particularly with struggling writers, SEND students, and those who just generally lack confidence in their own skills and techniques. Slow Writing does take time and patience, but what students lack in speed, they more than make up for in the quality and progress of writing. See my blog from a while ago discussing successes with the Slow Writing approach and SEND students - https://wordpress.com/post/skillswithfrills.com/1340

Just a handy help sheet, showing 6 different women ‘who made History.’ I’ve used this as part of a discussion on ‘International Women’s Day,’ prompting students to think about: how these women faced adversity/were ahead of their time in some way what character traits and qualities they showed what it was that gave them the strength to be courageous, despite being afraid how we can use their message to find strength and courage in our daily lives.

A creative writing task, based on the XBox/Playstation game, Ark: Evolution. I've found this is a great task for KS2 students, though it's definitely suitable for KS3 English also. Great for inspiring those uninspired students (especially boys) by bringing their love of gaming into literacy lessons. See my blog - link at the bottom - for more details as to how I've used this in the past. https://skillswithfrills.com/2018/02/07/teaching-students-with-an-xbox-imagination-bring-the-game-to-them/

I used this with my SEND group who were in year 8, but working at KS1/2 level. We watched a clip from Youtube (Just search: Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire: Hungarian Horntail Task.) Then we worked in pairs to put the pictures in order at first, and then match the correct sentence below and stick this in. One higher ability pair had to change their sentences as an extra challenge. This became the plan of our Harry Potter diary - we were completing a topic about Dragons - so students had all the events and information, and only needed to transform this into a diary style. This topic is suitable for KS2 and KS3 pupils and is easily adapted for different ages, abilities and needs. It’s very simple just to take out the sentences either in part or altogether and ask students to create their own from scratch.

My class were working through a unit based on our school community and Britain overall. I was becoming very concerned that in the political climate of Brexit, some of the students were beginning to repeat misinformed, ignorant and even bigoted opinions that they had picked up elsewhere… so I wanted them to consider immigration over time from the view of an outside observer. This worked a treat and I was especially careful to let students lead discussion, with me guiding/asking questions as needed. The information is something I’ve adapted from BBC timelines. If you have access to computers, students could do this as a research task instead. My class completed this teamwork task based on immigration to Britain over time and the attitudes that people were met with when they arrived. The opening starters really encouraged discussion and allowed us together to respond to negative ideas about immigrants. Then, students worked in groups of 4 and read each page as a group, breaking down who was coming to Britain, why and if the reaction was positive or negative. They presented this in different ways - it was quite open ended. One group presented this on a scale of a great reaction (Notting Hill carnival) to terrible (race riots) - depending on the class, you could explicitly ask for this as the open-ended nature might be too tricky for LA/SEND students. It’s also possible to differentiate if you have a weaker group by taking out some of the sheets as this is a lot of ground to cover for some. At the end, we talked about why the British reacted this way and linked this to our starter. All in all, this prompted some really interesting discuss and allowed some students to break down misconceptions of other students too. I used this with year 7 but I think this would with KS2 right up to KS5 classes if adapted slightly.

I created this as a homework sheet for SEND pupils in secondary, who were working at KS1/2 level. We had been working on different sentence types and adjectives/adverbs, so this allowed them to put this into practise and gave them examples also so they had a really clear structure to follow. As this group had issues with retaining information and skills, I also made the home learning helper sheet, just to provide more scaffolding. This could be used with lower ability/SEND pupils in KS3 or pupils at KS1/2. It can be used as home learning task, as a lesson, or as a scaffolded assessment at the end a unit incorporating these skills.

This is a slow writing task that I set as homework for SEND students in year 7 and 8, after they have completed similar slow writing activities. Great for reinforcing a range of skills, punctuation, grammar, sentence and word types and creative writing techniques. Suitable for KS2 and KS3 students, including struggling writers, LA pupils and SEND. Great as a structured end of unit piece of writing/Big Write or general independent writing. Easily differentiated further.

At the end of a unit of work based on various Mr. Bean clips, my KS3 SEND students watch the clip from youtube of Mr. Bean, waking up late for the dentist. Here’s the link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VumrpkL6RS0 Firstly, they cut out the pictures and in pairs, put these in order and discuss the events of the clip and how we might describe this to someone who hadn’t seen it. We split the clip in half and I show them my own slow writing from the first half of the clip. Then, their independent writing task is to complete the slow write for the second half of the clip. I’ve taught this to whole classes in year 5 and 6, and to small SEND groups in year 7 and 8. It’s always a hit, and I’ve found that the slow writing technique has made a big difference to the quality of writing that we’re producing.

Here’s a simple task I use with Y7 SEND students to reinforce and consolidate learning based on SPaG terminology. This would work as a pre-SATs revision task for SPAG - Spelling, punctuation and grammar. Children have the option to work in same-ability pairs and research at the computer if needed. I find that this makes follow-up slow writing tasks easier, as pupils can refer back to definitions when asked to include a word type etc. in their sentences.

This is a literacy unit, lasting one week, based on balanced argument. Pupils spend the first part of the week reading/evaluating sources and then put together their own balanced argument. Normally, the week would end with a big write to test the children’s skills but we had a random observation on Friday so we joint-planned the Goldilocks lesson - see extra notebook file. All three year 6 teachers received ‘outstanding’ observation feedback for Goldilocks :-) The unit mixes English and Literacy with History source skills through our Henry VIII topic. I’ve used elements of this when teaching Tudors to Year 8 pupils in History lessons.

This is a revised History topic plan for the Tudors - Key skills match those taken from the New curriculum as of 2013. I’ve not included any resources because none are my own - all taken from searching TES and finding bits and pieces to match!

This is a year 6 unit based on Belief - What is it? What’s the difference between belief and fact? Why/who believes? Do beliefs change? and so on. There&‘s a couple of resources that aren&’;t on here thought bubbles: I just write in class on paper. World Religions various beliefs to sort and answer sheet (this is on TES: author - missjulieclark) It’s a good juicy PSHE/SEAL topic - lots of interesting discussion to be had. Easily adapted for KS3 students to use in RE lessons or PSHE.

In celebration of Shakespeare’s birthday, here’s the play script from my class assembly whereby pupils perform a Midsummer Night’s Dream. Nice and easy to understand, and it worked a treat!

This is a powerpoint showing different pictures of 3D shapes around the world (toblerones and pyramids etc.) Great for a starter or plenary on shapes - ask kids to write down names of shapes on wipeboards to support AFL. I’ve used this with lower ability/SEND maths classes in year 6, as well as with year 9 SEND pupils. Suitable for KS1 and KS2 as well as LA mathematicians at KS3.